Christine's Love of Rowing
Click here to go back to the Frontier Home Page.
In the summer of 2003 Christine took a learn to row class with the Greater Dayton Rowing Association (GDRA). I rowed all summer and fall and I then rowed on an indoor rowing machine, an erg, all winter. Chris G., Brenda and I even completed the 2003 Holiday Challenge with Concept 2. This means we rowed 200,000 meters between Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. We even finished about 4 days early!
Luckily I had a break in late February. Brenda and I rowed with the San Diego rowing club on Mission Bay. It was a really great experience to row on a different type of water and it was just good to get on the water after all that indoor rowing.
I was on the water by mid-March and I passed my Captain's test on April 3rd. This allowed me to row in any boat in GDRA's boathouse.
 | On April 24th I raced in my first regatta the MRA Dogwood Regatta, in Oak Ridge, TN. I rowed in 2 races and was hooked. |
Race 1: I rowed in a quad. This is a boat with 4 people but we scull we do not sweep. This means we each have 2 oars and we do not have a coxswain. Following is a picture of the my team, The Betty's (from left to right, Betty Spaghetti, Betty Rubble, Betty Boop, and Apple Brown Betty) and a picture of us during the race. We won third place (bronze) in our race.
Please remember all pictures are being shown as thumbnails, point and click on any picture that you would like to see larger.
Race 2: I also rowed in a double. This is a boat with 2 people. Following is a picture of Cindy and I. We won first place (gold) in our race and then you'll find a picture showing about mid-way through our race. This was a hard won race as we messed up to the point of the boat stopping twice and we still won by 7.6 seconds (raw time) over the second place boat.
| On June 12th, 2 days before we left town, I rowed in my 2nd regatta the Midwest Masters Sprints, in Columbus, OH. Again I rowed in a double and a quad race. |
Race 1: I rowed in a double, this time with Martha. But again, we won first place (gold) in our race. We rowed through rain in this whole race and we were still 16.50 seconds in front of the closest boat!
Please remember all pictures are being shown as thumbnails, point and click on any picture that you would like to see larger.
Race 2: I rowed in the quad. The Betty's were missing one of our original members, but luckily we found another very capable Betty to fill her place. This time we did not win a medal but came close. We came in third but they were not giving medals for third at this regatta.
I believe it is going to take me a couple months or more to get into rowing in Wyoming and to find a boat but I think it is very possible and I don't think rowing is out of my life. I've seen very promising water on the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. We'll see...